Old Habits Die Hard
by PenTheHeart
Summary: It was a crazy force, they had managed to flawlessly and with ease slip back into their high school selves, the permanent touching, the invading personal space, the oblivion to the outside world. The oddity of their relationship that was once what they lived for. What happens when Beck and Jade meet again, him a moviestar and her a struggling college student. Cover: KiraSomerhalder
1. Chapter 1

_**Old Habits Die Hard-Chapter 1**_

_**Don't own anything**_

The music surged through his mind, hammering away every coherent thought and leaving his heart to beat to the same beat of the music. The room was filled with sweating bodies, dancing in a way that wasn't taught in any dance school. It was basically sex without the passion, it was lust and everybody in the room moved to the same emotion. Everybody grinded together like the plates of the universe, if one body moved on way everyone around had to move the same way, the friction was like a minor earthquake and the unbridled heat of the situation was the volcano.

He slalomed through the crowd, avoiding any contact with the dancers as he made his way to the open porch doors which in the sea of people appeared to be a million miles away. He felt the collar of his plaid shirt be grabbed and suddenly he was face to face with a dancing girl, her faked tan skin was outlined by the dyed blonde hair that fell in waves down to her breasts where a few strands slipped into the cleavage her lacy pink dress revealed. He looked back up at her face after his short examination embarrassed to have been caught staring at her assets however she seemed to enjoy it, raising her arms in a snake dance above her head, letting the already low front of her neon pink dress slip further south.

Incidentally she was just like every other girl at this party, in fact she was just like every other girl at every Hollywood party so he awkwardly smiled and left, this scene wasn't for him.

He didn't want to see girls in dresses shorter than their towels; he didn't want to be part of the dance that frankly disgusted him. He wanted something or someone real in a crowd of people who basically were clones of each other.

Keeping his head down as a way of blocking his vision he wandered out of the room and into the outside air, wondering why on earth he'd agreed to go to this party. It was "some chic's birthday" as his friend had told him, it wasn't a posh dress code and you didn't have to bring a gift. It wasn't the sort of birthday party he'd ever been to before. It was more of a club with a bit of meaning behind the party.

The cold air blew his hair back, no longer giving him a curtain of shadow to hide behind. In his ear he could still hear the music from behind him and he could hear the voices of the people who had escaped outside. They came with their new found partners or their loyal partners who they'd arrived with.

He continued across the land, keeping his eyes down and trained at the sand coloured tiles beneath him, watching as his boots padded over the immaculately cut grass, as other peoples feet came into his vision before leaving completely.

People had horrible shoes.

He kept walking until he bashed into a pair of black boots similar to his; heavy duty work boots that he'd had since high school.

"Sorry," he muttered, stepping to the side to pass the owner of the boots, his head still trained on the ground as if the bone in his neck had snapped and left him hanging like the Scarecrow.

"Nice shoes," the voice returned, it was an odd voice to have been owned by the kick-ass boots, it was a sweet Southern Belle that he'd recognise anywhere. "So is your neck broken or what Mr Superstar?"

"Jade?" he questioned whipping his head up to see his dark angel standing there.

"Beck," she nodded, fiddling nervously with the tulle of her skirt.

She hadn't changed.

Mile long waves of the richest chocolate cascaded down, her snow white skin paled by the contrast. Her winter blue eyes embedded with diamonds and silver, her dusk pink lips round, open and full like always. She was still the same girl he'd left behind 3 years ago.

"You look beautiful," he smiled; she was the first real person he'd seen all night.

Her boots came up to just below her knees and she wore thick woollen black tights despite it being both Hollywood and the middle of July, her dress fell a few inches short of her knees but it still looked like a floor length gown compared to the other girls at the party, she had a long black cardigan pulled tightly around her front revealing scarcely a chunk of her ice white neck, this was the girl he'd loved and grown up with.

"You look pretty damn scruffy for a Blockbuster Movie Star," she chuckled, finger the collar of his flannel shirt, "It looks so much better than those high end suits you wear on the red carpet."

He laughed at her and pulled on her waist, drawing her nearer so their bodies were touching. It was a crazy force, they hadn't seen or had any contact with each other in the last three years, four months and twenty-nine days-not that either of them had counted- yet at the first meet they had managed to flawlessly and with ease slip back into their high school selves, the permanent touching, the invading personal space, the oblivion to the outside world. The oddity of their relationship that was once what they lived for.

"So what have you been doing Miss West, you seem to know everything about me?" Beck asked, wrapping a lock of dark hair around his finger, pulling lightly because he knew she liked it.

"What can I say I read the tabloids, it's hard not to when your High School Boyfriend Beck Oliver is all over them," she shrugged, "I've been at College, not living the high life. The closest I've been to being in the newspapers is modelling for this girl at college who just got her line launched unlike you who became the hottest movie star of Hollywood today."

"I haven't seen you in the newspapers and believe me Jade, I was looking," he said, "but I can tell how you managed to get the modelling job, you're the most fucking gorgeous woman in this whole club."

"Language Mr Oliver," she smiled politely, her twice used Alabaman accent intertwining with her own.

"I don't see any children around, I will apologise profusely however if there is," he answered, taking her over to the swinging chair on the porch.

"There isn't. I haven't heard you swear outside that RV of yours before though," she laughed taking a seat on the chair, rocking it back and forth with her toe, "course I haven't heard you talk to me since you were nineteen either so all of this is sort of a lot unreal right now, especially now I've remembered we're adults."

"You didn't remember?" he chuckled, looking at her after sweeping the curtain of hair from his face.

"Don't tell anybody but you're my teenage years, I don't know you and me in the real world, I just sort of slip into being a teenager again but hearing you swear made me see you as a grown up despite how stupid that sounds" she shrugged, looking away to hide the emotion he could pick out in every crevice of her face.

"It doesn't sound stupid," he promised, taking her hand into his larger olive skinned one.

"Yes it does," she replied, rolling her eyes as she looked back at him.

"It doesn't," he repeated honestly.

"So you're telling me you felt the same?" she questioned.

"No, but I get it, it's not stupid," he answered.

"Yes it is," she replied indignantly.

"It's not," he laughed, remembering one hundred and one conversations that had gone the same with Jade over the years of knowing her.

"It is," she said stubbornly trying not to let her smile slip through as she saw him laugh. Years ago she would have managed to win this argument but listening to it in her head as a twenty-one year old woman it did sound terribly childish.

"You haven't changed," he stated, watching her begin to laugh with him.

"I have but only a tiny bit and in places that don't particularly mean anything," she shrugged nonchalantly.

"Where?" he asked, looking her over as if her personality was laid out in front of him.

"Well my boobs are about one and a half sizes bigger," she laughed, "and I don't argue so much unless I'm with certain people, I'm not AS mean as I used to be I guess, I don't wear my streaks as often as I used to and I no longer know what I want to do."

"What do you mean you no longer know what you want to do, you always wanted to be an actress?" he asked, trying hard not to look at her chest to see if he could prove the size difference.

He was a guy after all and he had been her boyfriend for longer than he'd been a man.

"I don't know I don't think I'll make it anymore, you know you got there and that's because you're crazy talented and meaningful and deep and you have all the girls after you, I just think if I was meant to be an actress I would have been one before now and I wouldn't be struggling to pay college debts or rent and I wouldn't be getting background places in all the plays at the theatre," she answered.

"Don't you dare give up on your dream Jadelyn West, don't you dare, you know you're good enough, I know you're good enough to make it and so what if you're going to college first, if I could take it all back and do the same I would, I would like to have qualifications for more than just standing in front of a camera quoting lines from scripts. What about your music, I bet that's taken off?"

"More like it's hovering, I'm not mainstream enough to pick up on anywhere near enough listeners to be put a record label so I'm hovering from song to song hoping that an Indie Record Company will pick up on it. Would you really go to college instead of becoming an actor?" she asked looking at him.

"Definitely, I admire you for doing that, everybody in the business says they're here because they didn't go to college, I wish I could have waited a bit longer for the jump into a career, I wish I'd come with you and did the whole college thing,"

"You wish you'd come with me?" she repeated, confused.

"Like we planned, I wish we'd have gone to college together," he smiled, "I wanted to."

"I wanted to but you never would have gotten the big Hollywood movie offer if you had," she pointed out.

"There would have been others," he shrugged.

"Not like that one," she stated.

"Well anyway, don't you dare give up okay?" he said sternly, taking her chin so she was forced to look at him.

She nodded, the vulnerable child in her eyes that only ever came out when Beck sat in front of her.

"So what brings you here?" Beck asked, changing the subject as he looked around.

"I live here," she smiled.

"Really?" he asked looking up at the massive building.

"Me and a bunch of other kids from the college, my room's on the third floor at the second door."

"What does that mean, "a bunch of other kids?"" he questioned, hoping she wasn't living with anyone dangerous and somewhere deep inside him hoped there wasn't a boy in the house.

"Me, Cathy, Jenny, Lucy, Jasper, Ethan and Isaac, that's all," she smiled, watching his face drop at the mention of Jasper, Ethan and Isaac.

"Boys?" he asked and she nodded laughing.

"They're perfect gentlemen and their rooms are upstairs from ours, the worst thing that's happened so far is Jasper caught me getting out of the shower but we laughed it off," she grinned watching his face.

"He caught you naked?" Beck's voice wavered.

"No he caught me putting a towel on, he promised he didn't see anything though, you're the only guy who's ever seen under my clothes," she smirked.

"So you're still, you know," he said awkwardly and she laughed out loud.

"Yes Beck I'm still a virgin," she nodded, "with my studies I don't particularly have time to be out finding a guy much less having sex with them."

"What about Jasper, Ethan and Isaac?" Beck questioned.

"Ethan's gay, Isaac's got a four year old daughter and an ex girlfriend that drives him to wits end and Jasper's well, he's Jasper, we're friends I met him on my first day at the College."

"Just friends?" Beck questioned again and suddenly chastised himself, why was he being so nosy?

"Just friends, believe me he's just a friend, our joke is that he's been completely friend-zoned because of the line from that movie 'if a girl changes in front of you, she either likes you or you're 100% friend zoned," she smiled, Jade was so relaxed here, just talking about life; he never thought he's see her like this.

"So what about you Mr Superstar, you got yourself a new girl every night?" she asked.

"Yes, she's called my bed. As soon as I get in every night I sleep Jade, I haven't got time for a life."

"So what are you doing out on the town, shouldn't you be in wherever that movie of yours is being shot?" she asked.

"Toronto and no, lucky me I get the week off so I came home with two buddies of mine which brings me to why I'm here and why I'm wondering where the hell they are because he's my ride home," he chuckled.

"Why are you here at this party anyway, surely there are a hundred other better parties in Hollywood right now?" Jade asked, twiddling with the piece of loose tulle again.

"My friend says this was a college party and I ought to know what it was like," Beck replied.

"We're not much of the college party types, this is all Lucy's show and believe me when I say this is nothing like a college party; this is actually nice." Jade laughed.

"What happened to 'I don't have time to go out?'" Beck asked, "And seriously this is good?"

"This is good and I did at the start, Jasper took me to one but I left after an hour it was ironic to find out that Hollywood Arts had actually babied us with their parties, I thought they'd been a bit strong with them you know with the alcohol at the end of year parties and the empty make-out rooms but now I found otherwise."

"Yeah, here they just seem to make-out wherever. Where are your friends?" Beck asked, taking over rocking duties of the swing as she lifted both her legs up and curled them around her.

"Cathy's pregnant so she's spending the night with her boyfriend, last time I checked Lucy was in a cupboard with some guy, Jenny's asleep, so is Isaac and Ella, Ethan's being the bar man and Jasper was trying to get this girl to dance with him."

"Ella?" Beck repeated.

"Isaac's daughter, he had her when he was sixteen," Jade replied.

"Eek," Beck commented, remembering when at sixteen they had spent a lot of time in his RV experimenting but never hitting for a home run.

"Yeah, he said it was the best thing that ever came out of the worst situation, but he does wish he'd waited."

"What do you think would have happened to us had we ever gotten pregnant?" Beck asked, unbuttoning the sleeve of his shirt.

"We wouldn't have lasted, Isaac and his girlfriend broke up after they had Ella and I think we would have been the same besides if we had, you wouldn't be Mr Superstar and I wouldn't be in college."

"Would you have kept it?" Beck questioned, rolling the shirt sleeves up his well-toned arms.

"Definitely," Jade replied without hesitation, "The baby shouldn't have to pay for what we did and I would kinda like to see what a mini me and you would look like,"

"They'd be the best looking baby in all of town, especially with you as a Mum," he chuckled.

"Stop flirting with me, and yeah they would look pretty sick," Jade laughed, resorting back to her teenage-tongue.

"I'm not flirting," He replied, holding his hands up in mock surrender.

"You told me I looked beautiful, you said our baby would be the best looking especially with me as an ingredient and you haven't stopped looking into my eyes or at my boobs all night," she laughed.

Crap, she had noticed.

-Victory Meets Again-

"I can't find him," Beck exclaimed in a big breath of air.

"Stay the night," she shrugged, "my rooms big enough for two."

"You sure?" he asked, running a hand through his hair.

"Yeah, I don't bite," she smiled.

"Yes you do," he answered laughing.

She bared her teeth and led him up from the living room to her bedroom.

It was past one in the morning and the party was still burning downstairs but both Beck and Jade were exhausted from doing absolutely nothing. Beck sat down on her black, silky bed sheets, rubbing over them with his hand as he watched her pull out an oversized t-shirt. She threw it to him before rummaging again and he stood up.

"Can I change here, I don't particularly want to be caught by Jasper and I'm afraid I'll get lost," he asked.

"Sure," she chuckled, taking a vest and shorts from her drawer.

"So am I friend-zoned or do you like me?" he asked, admiring her legs, rear and perfect skin as she stepped out of her dress.

"You were my boyfriend, you get the privilege," she laughed, rolling her tights down her now very long legs.

He tore his eyes away from her for a moment, just long enough to focus on getting out of his own clothes and into the old shirt that she'd had as a nightgown since they were fourteen, he thought about keeping his jeans on to be decent but decided against it opting for just the t-shirt and his boxers, he was sleeping after all.

The black underwear against her ice-white skin was an incredible sight, he knew she'd always worn dark underwear and when he'd seen it as a teenager his hormones had driven him crazy but now even as a an adult seeing such the tonal difference and the proper curves on her body made him go crazy and while alarm bells in his head sounded telling him to unleash the vicious wolf inside of him and pounce on her he waited and watched as she slipped into the black shorts and to add to his fire the see-through grey vest that over the black bra did absolutely nothing.

"I'll take the floor if you want?" she smiled, wrestling her hair into a bun on top of her head, a handful of strands refusing to be tamed and slipping out.

"Don't be silly Jade, we'll take the bed, we're adults here," he returned the smile.

That was the problem.

They were Adults.

Not kids anymore.

He slid in first and she switched off the lights before joining him, fitting right into his body like a piece of a puzzle, he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer, keeping her warm with the heat of his body under the freezing, silky sheets.

"Sweet dreams," he whispered into the air.

"Best nightmares," she whispered in reply, the same thing she'd done for years.

He laughed and squeezed her tightly.

-Victory Meets Again-

"Wake up," she said quietly shaking his shoulders.

"Why?" he groaned, feeling Jade's hands on his shoulders.

"Because it's breakfast," she smiled just as he opened his eyes allowing him to see the beauty he'd missed of seeing Jade West wake up.

And today she was straddling him which was always new.

"You have allotted times?" Beck questioned, stretching and awakening his sleeping and happy muscles.

"No but we always eat together and if we don't go down Lucy'll come up in a minute and the rumours will be spread and we'll be screwed cause a guy in my bed won't go down quietly," she laughed, shaking his shoulders more rapidly now so he could feel his brains wobble like jelly in his head.

"Especially not in this position cowgirl," he whispered in her ear moving her so he could get up, admiring the blush on her face.

"You ready?" he asked and she rolled of the bed where he'd placed her.

"Let's go," she smiled walking in front of him to keep him in the right direction.

"You're going looking like that?" he asked, watching her shorts and vest as if they were about to pounce.

"We're adults; all the guys will look like you and all the girls will be a slightly more putridly coloured me."

"Putrid?" he questioned.

"They wear pink to bed, I asked them how they don't get nightmares they replied 'it's a nice colour', I still don't get them," Jade shrugged.

The pair walked down the stairs, Beck a tad self conscious of both him and Jade's attire and Jade completely at home and used to doing this for the last two years.

"Hey Jasper," Jade smiled at the tall boy already in the kitchen, sipping a coffee waiting on the toaster to pop.

"Hey Death Girl, who's the guy?" Jasper questioned, his dark blue eyes staring intently at the brown liquid in the cup.

"Beck, he was at the party last night, we went to high school together," Jade replied, gesturing for Beck to take a seat as she went through the fridge.

"The Boyfriend?" Jasper asked and Jade nodded.

"See I do remember some of the things you tell me," Jasper chuckled taking the Pop Tarts out of the toaster.

Jade made two cups of coffee before sitting down in the chair next to Beck and handing him one.

"I know," Jade smiled.

"So are you two still you know boyfriend-girlfriend?" Jasper asked taking a bite out of the crumbling piece of candied pastry.

Jade shook her head and Beck opened his mouth to say the first thing of that morning and was interrupted by a loud cheery voice.

"Oh My Gosh, who's that and if he isn't already claimed please let me have him," the blonde cheered from the stairs, true enough she was keeping in Jades rules she wore tiny pink shorts and a purple bunny top.

"Hey Lucy," both Jade and Jasper nodded.

"So anyway why is there a super hot guy sitting at the table and who does he belong to because I will claim him if he doesn't have someone," Lucy grinned taking a seat at the table.

"He's Jades," Jasper answered, "Beck his name is."

"Hi Beck," Lucy smiled at him before turning to Jade "Holy girl how'd you land him, Voodoo?"

"High school," Jade replied, "And he's not mine he's his own."

"So did he sleepover Jadey?" Lucy questioned.

"Yes we were tired after the party and he couldn't find his ride home so I let him stay the night," Jade answered, "Just sleeping," she added to answer Lucy's next question.

"Seriously girl you're no fun whatsoever, what about you Jasp, you get lucky last night?" Lucy asked the taller boy.

"Nope, sleeping alone," he replied.

"Fine, Beck what do you do for a living?" Lucy interrogated.

Beck laughed internally, Lucy was NOT the person he would ever think of Jade managing to live with without murdering her with the hundred pairs of scissors she owned.

"I'm an actor," he replied, waiting for the name to kick in.

"Oh my gosh Beck Oliver?" Lucy squealed, "You're Beck Oliver?"

Beck nodded and took Jade's hand under the table which he squeezed tight once he noticed her clench her teeth.

"Wow, you sure get the good ones Jade," Lucy laughed.

"See being the Queen of Darkness has its upsides," a boy coming downstairs chuckled, "I apologise Beck nobody seems to have said 'Hello' to you yet. I do greatly apologise, we're not all like that."

"Morning Isaac," everybody chorused.

"Where's Ella?" Jasper asked, looking around for the little girl.

"Waking Jen up, she refuses to come to breakfast without her," Isaac chuckled; having a four year old was definitely taking him through some of the weirdest things and conversations.

"Daddy! Jenny's up," the little girl shouted from the top of the stairs before emerging lugging a half asleep twenty something year old behind her.

"So I think are the neighbours," Isaac said to the crowd in the kitchen.

Most of them laughed and Beck smiled, this was a weird bunch but Jade seemed to be well looked after and got along well with all them.

"Who's he?" Isaac asked, pouring three bowls of cereal on auto-pilot.

"Beck, he's Jade's sleepover friend," Lucy chuckled.

"Jade!" Isaac exclaimed in mock disgust.

"We just slept," Jade said in surrender, "Ask him yourself."

Everybody looked at Beck and he looked at Jade before turning back to the crowd.

"We just slept," he assured them and laughed, Jade was obviously the baby of the group and surprisingly she'd taken to it.

"Well it was nice seeing everybody in the land of the living but I'm going back to bed, nice to meet you Beck," Jasper nodded leaving the room and climbing the stairs.

"You too," Beck called in reply, turning his attention back to the table.

"I'm sorry Ella woke you up," Isaac apologised to Jenny handing her a bowl of cereal.

"It's fine, it's cute to wake up to a four year old on top of you shaking your shoulders like there's an earthquake," Jenny grinned.

Hearing the conversation between the two, Beck let his thoughts drift to how he was woken up.


	2. Chapter 2

**Oh my, I'm speechless at the reviews I got for just that one story, and the alerts, I swear you literally made me one of the happiest people alive. I love how much you all seem to like this story, I wasn't sure how it would go down with them being older, more mature, not in character to their teenage selves. Thank you so much!**

**For the line breaks I changed it to /\/\/\/\ so I really hope that makes it easier and less distracting to read. If however it is a problem, please give me suggestions for I would love to just use "– "but it disappears when uploaded which is really annoying so suggestions are welcome! **

**Old Habits Die Hard- Chapter 2**

"Where do you live?" Jade asked, fighting with the gear stick of the big truck as the engine began to boil with a loud groan.

"My old place," Beck answered and after receiving a look from Jade he explained, "In the house, not an RV in the driveway."

"Good, what happened to it anyway?" Jade questioned, turning down the next street.

"Sold it to some collector for around twenty thousand dollars, apparently something originally owned by Fat Biscuit then owned by Beck Oliver is worth a lot more than what my parents paid for it," Beck laughed.

"What about the furniture?" Jade asked, remembering al the posters, signs, pillows and retro furniture they'd picked up at Flea markets as well as the coffee mugs, old rugs and the-just a little too small for the both of them-bed, all of the items holding great significance to both of them.

"Moved into my house," Beck replied.

"So where are your parents?"

"They moved to Canada to be part of the family business after my dad lost his job at the firm," Beck answered, "so I bought the house off them and moved in."

"The family business?" Jade asked curiously, switching on the radio to some classic rock station.

"Shovelling snow? I honestly have no idea," Beck shrugged, "what kind of jobs are there in Canada?"

"You live there," Jade stated, "You're Canadian."

"I'm an actor there, I don't exactly live in the real world over there, and this is my real world."

"Well I don't know any better than you do, I hate the place," Jade shrugged, tapping to the beat of the song on the steering wheel.

"Your dad and his whole family are from Canada," Beck reminded.

"You're point being?" Jade smirked.

Beck nodded and fell back into his chair, realising he'd answered his own question.

Jade turned into the driveway of the once familiar home, the drive looked almost empty without the tin can parked in the front and if she hadn't been paying attention she would have driven right past it.

"Welcome to my humble abode," he chuckled, unbuckling his seatbelt as she stopped the engine, ceasing the grumbling roar.

She let her mouth curve into a short smile before she released herself from the clasp of the truck and stepped out onto the gravel beneath.

"Outside still looks the same," she commented, the pebbles beneath her crunching and moving like waves as her black boots walked over them.

"Wait till you see inside," Beck said excitedly, almost like a child on Christmas.

She honestly couldn't wait to see inside, she hoped that the original cream walls, wooden floors and stupid fake plants were all gone and that it was all made like Beck.

"Wait, the doors a different colour?" she asked, trying to remember what colour it had been previously as she stood on the doorstep, watching him fiddle with a key in the lock.

"Yip, I hated the old white thing, I painted it," he said, admiring the lightly, cracking, orange paint on the door.

"Orange?" she asked with her eyebrows raised.

"I like Orange," he chuckled, opening the door with a twist of the gold handle, allowing her to walk in as he followed.

"Beck," she breathed, looking around just the main hallway in awe.

It was exactly like the RV, warm orange walls with a million and one pieces of junk fitted in a shanty order decorating it. And right in the corner, was his notice board, with her calligraphic swirls still reading "Beck's Rules, Wear Pant's Often."

"Seriously," she smiled, fingering the whiteboard with a black painted fingernail.

"It's a good reminder," he shrugged, slipping out of his shoes and hanging his jacket up on a crooked hook on the wall, "Can I take your coat?"

She shrugged out of her thin, black coat and handed it to him, before hauling off her knee high lace up trainers without bothering to untie the black lace.

"Is your whole house like this?" she asked, gesturing to the small hallway they were standing in.

"Pretty much," he nodded, taking her hand and leading her through to his living room.

"Have a seat," he said, pointing to the orange couches that she recognised from the RV, "I'll just quickly go get changed."

She sat down and looked around, everywhere was things she recognised, whether it was just odd license plates that used to reside on the RV walls or photos of high school she knew it all. She picked up a television magazine from tucked in a large bucket like thing and tucked her feet beneath her, looking through the glossy pages.

"_Singer Tori Vega marries Billionaire Director," _

She remembered that article, and she knew for a fact it wasn't new. They'd been married for almost a year now, hell she was pregnant with their first child. Looking at the date she saw it was more than a year ago and she wondered why on earth he would keep something from so long ago.

She picked up another one from the bucket and looked at the front page,

"_Andre Harris to write music for next Hollywood Blockbuster written by friends husband, director Dale Squires," _

That wasn't new either, it was a few months old when the movie _'Young Hearts' _was first hitting the headlines, Andre being the Musical prodigy he was, signed a contract with the fifty-year old director to write all the music for one of the supposed greatest movies of all time. The article was also the first mention that Tori and Dale were having a baby.

Picking up another three of the magazines she laid them all out in front of her.

"_Cat Valentine becomes idol of millions of young girls within a few weeks of her single release "Neon Teddies,"_

"_Robbie Shapiro most world renowned Ventriloquist, puppet says "he don't know where they get that from,"_

"_22 year old Tori Vega- Squires to have a Boy, family ecstatic," _

Picking through all of the magazines she realised every single one had a common theme, they contained articles on Tori, Cat, Robbie or Andre, they weren't the same magazine, there were countless different labels, they weren't even from the same country, some of them were noticeable from Canada and others Jade knew were from America. They all just contained articles detailing the fame of their friends.

Hearing Beck come downstairs she gathered them all up and placed them in the bucket again, leaning back and playing idly with a strand of her long hair, waiting for him to arrive in the doorway.

"How do I look?" he said, flashing her a smile as he stood in the entryway.

"Like Beck," she smiled, standing up and walking over to him.

"Great," he smiled, grabbing her by the waist as she came closer and pulling her tightly to him, "however I was going for hot."

He pressed a kiss to her lips and she obliged, before pulling back and looking at him cheekily.

"I think hot's pushing it."

"You little," he laughed.

"You'd better not finish that sentence," she smirked, pressing a finger to his bottom lip, folding it down before releasing it so it pinged back into place.

"Oh but I have a lot of things to add," he smirked, tangling his hand in her hair and pressing his lips to hers again.

As it began to get more heated, she bit down on his bottom lip.

"You bit me," he exclaimed, more shocked at how turned on he was from it opposed to the pain it caused.

"You know you like it," she whispered.

Losing his train of thought in her eyes he replaced something witty as a comeback with a searing kiss, forcing his tongue into her mouth with brute force as she clawed at him for more.

Neither of them remembered that they technically weren't boyfriend or girlfriend anymore, that supposedly they were just friends re-uniting.

But then old habits die hard.

"So what are we doing today?" Jade asked, pulling back as a distinct pink colour covered her cheeks as she smiled.

"What do you want to do?" he questioned, releasing her hair from his grasp.

"I live here, I could do anything I want any day, and you're only here for a week before you go back to _Canada_. You have one week to do anything you want without being knee deep in snow and maple syrup, so c'mon superstar, what do you want to do today?"

"Go to Rosedale and then spend the night on Venice Beach like we used to do," he answered, taking her hand in his own.

"We don't have your RV anymore," she reminded, her smile growing without her realising as he stroked her hand with his thumb.

"I don't want to stay in an RV, I want to sleep on blankets on the sand like we always wanted to do, I want to have a fire blazing all night like rock star's have in their music videos."

"And Rosedale?" she asked curiously, "you hated it there."

"We have a reason to go now Jade, and besides, you love it there," he smiled, taking a hand to her cheek before pulling back after realising that he wasn't allowed to just do those things anymore, they were simply friends.

"I hate it now I have a reason to go, before I didn't, it was just a pretty place that was peaceful. Now there's someone I know amongst the thousands of strangers, someone that shouldn't be there."

"We can stop by the supermarket and pick up a few things to take with us on our adventure, we'll also pick up a couple of coconuts if you'd like?" Beck asked, leading her out to the hall and handing her, her shoes and jacket.

"Fine, but we're not staying long," Jade demanded, slipping into her boots and folding her jacket over her arm.

"That's fine by me," he chuckled, following her out the door as he locked up.

/\/\/\/\

A coconut was held firmly by both of her hands as the two of them walked solemnly side by side across the lawn of neatly cut grass. Trees stood high overhead, the protectors of those who walked beneath. Grey stone poked out from the grass, carved letters spelling names, etched numbers detailing the lives of those past. Large statues and architecture stood tall above the ordinary stones, angels and pyramids as well as religious characters stood strong on platforms, looking down on all that passed.

Rosedale Cemetery, she used to love it here.

Until she had a reason.

They arrived at their destination, fifteen steps from the concrete pyramid and she knelt down on the grass before the small stone, placing the coconut down on the green grass. Without a word, she stood up and they both looked down at the stone before them, re-reading the words carved into stone forever.

"_Erwin Sikowitz, __Theater is Life, Film is Art. Television is furniture- A truly, dedicated Teacher in more ways than one." _

After spending a mere minute- yet it seemed like an hour- staring at the script they took hands and began their walk back to the car for they weren't staying any longer.

/\/\/\/\

"Let's go for a swim," Beck suggested, watching her bury his feet in the sand, so far they'd spent the day making shanty sandcastles, sleeping and catching up, yet now as the sun went down and the people began to disappear they were alone with only a small inch of sunshine covering the beach.

"After all my brilliant work?" she smiled, placing a tiny twig on the top of the mould of sand, "besides, we don't have swimming costumes."

"You have underwear don't you, unless of course you want to go skinny dipping," he smirked, enjoying the view he got as she leant over, trying to secure an old leaf onto the twig like a flag.

"Fine then," she said, sitting up, looking him straight in the eyes and pulling her black vest over her head.

"Skinny dipping?" he managed to croak out, watching her as the vest was thrown to the floor and her breasts were staring him right in the face.

Or it could have possibly been the other way around, he wasn't completely sure in that moment as she slipped out of her black leggings.

"You wish," she laughed, adding her leggings and skirt to her vest before climbing over him and sliding the already open flannel shirt off of his arms.

"You really have a thing for being on top huh?" he grinned, lifting his hands to her side as he moved to have his legs beneath him, releasing them from their sand prison so he was kneeling with her on his lap. There was the heat again as she sat straddling him, removing his shirt. The skin on skin contact made him shiver due to the feelings running through his blood, not the breeze passing through the air.

"Haven't I always," she smirked, rolling her hips on his as she unbuckled his belt, "Now get those off and I'll race you," she said, scrambling to her feet and looking down at him. He still felt tingling, his breathing increased just by the intimacy of her unbuckling his belt but she didn't seem to notice.

Like a child she seemed blissfully unaware of what she was doing to him and it made him feel embarrassed for feeling the way he did.

"3...2...1..." she looked at him as he removed his pants, leaving him only in his boxers before she took off down the beach. The cold sand sinking beneath her feet, slowing her down slightly, but not enough for him to be able to catch up with her.

The water was ice-cold and sent their teeth chattering and their skin blue but they still ran straight until their waists were surrounded by water.

"You look cold," he stated, standing half a metre away from her as she stood shivering, her long arms wrapped around herself.

"We're standing half naked in the middle of the fucking ocean, of course I look cold," she said through chattering teeth, completely regretting the idea of 'swimming'.

"Dunk your shoulders in, that way you'll get used to it," he suggested, sinking down to his knees so only his head was above the water. She glared at him and remained standing.

"If you don't, I'll come over there and dunk you myself," he warned, outstretching his hand to her.

She warily took his hand and inched her way into the water until just beneath her lacy black bra was submerged in the salty water.

"I hate you," she stated, closing her eyes and biting her bottom lip as she sunk herself down so only her head was dry, "I'm cold."

"C'mon, try swimming?" he said, leaning back in the water so he was floating on his back, his toes protruding from the dark waves. Again she sent him one of her most famous glares which defined the phrase "if looks could kill."

She made her way closer to him, creating waves with the slow movements of her ice-white body, soon enough she was beside him and she took the opportunity to send him under, soaking his perfect hair, drowning his cheeky smile.

She laughed until she felt him grab her leg, pulling her down with him.

They arose together, a mop of dark hair covering both of their eyes and sticking to their necks.

"I hate you," she choked out, stifling a laugh at the sight of him.

"You started it," he shrugged, smirking at her wet appearance; black trails going down her cheek making her look like Alice Cooper.

"You wanted to go swimming," she reminded, wiping away the trails along her cheek as she saw him looking.

Usually he would have taken a hand and wiped it away for her but he remembered clearly the nagging feeling in the back of his head. They weren't boyfriend/girlfriend anymore.

He just wanted to touch her.

/\/\/\/\/

"_Boys, girls, men, women and whatevers, I present to you once again the honour students of the Hollywood Arts Class of 2013, these students have shown true dedication in their school careers, unlike our other students who murmur occasional words and have overly dramatic facial expressions,_

"_Let me introduce once again, Valedictorian Victoria –Tori- Vega and honorary students, Andre Harris, Beckett Oliver, Robert Shapiro, Catriona Valentine and Jadelyn West,"_

_The cheering ensued as the six stepped onto the stage, Jade and Beck behind the rest, Jade whispering in his ear._

"_Why the hell is Vega, "Tori" and all the rest of us are Jadelyn, Beckett and Robert?" she whispered angrily, "we've never once been called by our full names, hell I didn't even know Robbie was Robert."_

"_It makes the school sound more intelligent if we have names such as Jadelyn and Beckett," Beck reasoned, smiling to the crowd of people before them as Jade replied._

"_They have Sikowitz being the host, he's not wearing anything under that graduation gown and he has slippers on because Helen said he was fired otherwise, if they wanted to look intelligent I highly doubt you would put the hunchback of Notre Dame as the host to a prestigious awards ceremony if you were trying to look intelligent," Jade hissed._

"_Just smile babe," he chuckled, taking her hand in his own as they stood for more photos._

"_And why the hell is Vega valedictorian? She didn't even know what stage fighting was," Jade added, Beck just rolled his eyes and smiled, waiting for this ceremony to end._

"_And now, may the after party commence," Sikowitz exclaimed, raising his hands so his gown rose to reveal his hairy legs and battered slippers._

_In true Hollywood Arts tradition the crowd burst into laughter and the six students on the stage departed as quickly as they could._

"_And you're sure you don't want to go to the after-party?" Beck asked Jade as they ran to his truck._

"_I have seven hours with you until you're going to Canada for a year, I'm not sharing you," she stated, taking off her hat as she climbed into the truck._

"_Fine by me," he chuckled, making a note to call all of his friends later and say goodbye._

"_Now please let's go and get out of these stupid clothes," she said, taking the fabric of her floor length, midnight blue gown that she'd been forced to wear for the occasion into her hand._

"_Not a chance, you look hot as hell in that dress so there is no way you're changing. You can lose the robe though babe," he chuckled, leaning over and unbuttoning the single button on her black robe after he'd removed his own from himself._

"_Off," he ordered, revving up the engine, bringing the growling monster to life, the seats vibrating as the truck roared into admission._

"_Don't get bossy with me Oliver," she said, raising her eyebrows at him as she hauled the mass of fabric over her head, "I can still dump your ass."_

"_You wouldn't dare," he laughed, taking her chin in his hands and pressing a heated kiss to her lips before turning back to truck and reversing out of the parking space._

_She licked her lips in a daze and looked out of the window at the dulling sky; she had seven hours left with the only love of her life who'd ever loved her back._

_Incidentally those seven hours went by like minutes and soon enough they were standing outside Beck's home._

"_Take the truck, I don't need it anymore," he smiled placing the keys in her hand._

"_You will in a year, when you come back," she said inaudibly, her voice silent, vulnerable._

_He felt guilty, like he was walking out on her and the look on her face made him want to run away with her, demand he stay in Hollywood while his parents went to Canada for a year for their stupid holiday. She was the epitome of sadness, she looked so undoubtedly broken all he wanted to do was hold her in his arms and never, ever let go._

_He heard his mother call from the car and he looked at her once more, "I love you Jade, please, please never forget that."_

_She nodded weakly and he wrapped his arms around her, kissing the top of her head as he squeezed her tight enough for her to be completely merged with himself. _

"_I love you too," she said weakly, looking up at him._

_Jade West was tough, a bully, she was mean, selfish and inconsiderate._

_Jade was the girl looking up at him, a girl so crazily in love, so tiny, so sweet, and so innocent. She was the girl who took a photo of him asleep every morning and kept them hidden in a box with hundreds of other photo's of the two of them, she was the girl who asked all the time for him to say he loved her even though he said it thousands of times a day without her asking. She was the girl who was scared of being alone, terrified of death and scared stiff of losing what she had._

_She was beautiful, kind and deserved the world._

_His mother yelled again, demanding he get in or they would be late so he took one long look in her eyes and pressed a searing, sweet, demanding, promising kiss to her lips._

_And yet again the sparks flew, the fireworks blew in the background like always and her taste of coffee and red grapes enchanted his senses. The kiss grew deeper as he gathered her cut and dyed black hair in his hands and held her impossibly closer._

"_I'll miss you," they whispered in unison, their voices so quiet they were almost carried away by the wind._

/\/\/\/\

Lying with her asleep on his chest, both of them wrapped in layers of old blankets he thought back to their last moments together and realised they had never once broken up formally, a technicality which he could get used to.


	3. Chapter 3

**I would firstly like to say again, thank you so much to everyone who is reading this, a massive thank you to everyone alerting and favouriting and a larger thank you to everyone reviewing because I love hearing your opinions they just fuel this story and myself. I would like to admit that the flashback scene in the previous chapter was incidentally my way of filling up a chapter, I had no inspiration whatsoever and I couldn't think of anything so hence the flashback was created, it makes me so happy though that you guys liked it and to**_** 'jhenybadefan' **_**I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to make anyone cry or feel sad, I'm sending you the biggest of virtual hugs with this new chapter! I also want to **_**'madkin'**_** for her help in telling me where the line breaks are and for her brilliant idea that I am really excited about! Big virtual hugs also go to **_**Daniyeahthatsme, asia-is-brown, imafanpire, Emily, khay, Marrox13, Written in the Dark, Wohooo, NeedMoreBade, Jeremy Shane**_** and **_**KIMMIK100, **_**I hope to hear from you all again! Xx**

Risky.

Was walking along the edge of a cliff, was running with scissors, was handing a teenager a loaded gun.

Dangerous was waking Jade in the mornings.

And of course to wake Jade up in the morning with butterfly kisses trailing down her neck to her collarbones when you weren't actually dating but stuck somewhere in the middle where you were friends like lovers who were not dating but had dated, who temporarily forgot they weren't dating but who had never actually stopped was just another story altogether.

"Beck," she let out a breathy sigh, fluttering her eyes open to reveal cloudy grey sapphires.

"What do you want to do today?" he asked, avoiding the topic of his ministrations as he kissed further down her chest, even risking to pull down the neck of her shirt to kiss the skin beneath. He looked around for a moment, locating both of their underwear in a soggy pile at their feet.

"Beck," she said a little more clearly, her voice filled with magic and pleasure, "Beck, wait."

"What is it?" he questioned, knowing she was far from mad.

"What are you doing?" she asked, propping herself up on her elbows.

"Waking you," he replied confidently, moving up her body so his lips were hovering above hers.

"I see," she commented, her voice still airy and quiet.

"So what do you want to do today?" he asked, straddling her as their noses touched.

"Go home with you," she answered quietly.

"What?" he questioned, shocked at the statement.

"Go home with you, you deaf idiot," she chuckled, her mean tone sliding effortlessly into her still asleep voice, a combination which he found to turn him on to no extent.

"What does go home with you mean?" he asked confused.

"I mean I want to get in the truck, drive to your house and go inside," she said, using her baby tone that he'd heard her use on Cat countless times.

"Why?" he asked, looking straight into her eyes.

"You never stop asking questions do you?" she smirked, pushing at his shoulders so she could get up.

"Are we going now?" he asked, leaning back, feeling the prickle on his skin where her hands had touched over the flannel cloth.

He really was a sucker for her.

She stood up and stretched, watching him as he deliberately avoided watching her as her breasts rose and the edge of her t-shirt revealed her belly button. She'd always liked having this effect on him, there had been countless times where he'd told her to change before they left for school because the outfit she'd so carefully crafted for one particular reason had worked brilliantly and he guaranteed that he wouldn't be able to focus on anything if she was sitting right next to him in that.

"Now," she nodded her face serious despite her minds dirty, cheeky and funny thoughts.

* * *

Following the same procedure as before she removed her shoes and jacket and placed them in the hallway then following him up the blue carpet stairs to his bedroom.

"Your whole house is just one big version of your RV huh?" she asked, brushing a finger along a car registration plate nailed to the wall.

"I liked my RV," he chuckled, rummaging in the drawers by his bed for something as she looked around the walls.

"Me too, once I ignored the fact it was orange," she shrugged, standing on her tiptoes to see a framed photo of the six of them at the beach on that memorable day where they'd almost melted. By the time they'd been rescued by Cat, the beach had been almost empty and after a few hours it was more deserted than the Sahara and they were all absolutely freezing so they'd decided to take one photo before going home. It was the only photo they had of that day which was rare for them but it consisted of a squint photo (Robbie set the tripod squint) of the six of them in the water, Cat pretending to be a ballerina, Robbie who had just fallen in, treading water at the back, Andre smiling with his arm around Tori and Beck and herself at the far left, Beck giving her a kiddy-back as she had her arms wrapped around him almost as if her life depended on it.

"Orange is a nice colour," he said in mock offence.

"No it's not, purple is a nice colour, orange is... orange," she said in disgust.

"Well I like it," he shrugged, throwing a flannel shirt at her. She caught it and looked over at him.

"Beck remember what I said about my boobs being bigger? Well this barely covered my ass when we were teenagers, give me a pair of your boxers too," she ordered, holding the shirt in her hands keeping it away from contact with her currently sandy clothes.

He hid a smile and threw her a pair of his boxers, watching her leave as she wandered down the hall to change.

He himself grabbed a pair of flannel trousers and an old worn Hollywood Arts shirt and unbuttoned his damp shirt, leaving his top bare revealing his low hung jeans that were sticking uncomfortably to him. Hauling the Hollywood arts shirt over his head he tried to stretch it out finding the cotton sticking slightly to his damp muscles. He quickly slipped out of his jeans and relished in the feeling of the wet denim being gone before stepping into his pyjama pants and throwing himself down onto his bed.

She emerged a moment later, carrying a lump of her clothes, the boxers ending mid thigh and the shirt buttoned to one more than it used to be. She placed the lump of clothes on the chair in the corner where his had been thrown and looked over at him. She crawled on the bed and buried her head in his shoulder, her unruly curls tickling the bare skin of his chin. He wrapped his arms around her waist and they lay for a silent moment until she raised her head and looked in his eyes.

"Do you still play?" she questioned, glancing over at his old guitar that sat untouched in his half broken stand.

"Not since high school, I haven't had the time," he answered, looking over at the acoustic fender with the various scratches that held a different story for each, with the out of tune, rusting steel strings and the black plectrum that he hated to use but loved because it had their names scribbled in white calligraphy on both sides.

She looked him straight in the eyes before shuffling off of him and so she was standing on the blue fluffy carpet as she walked over to the guitar she remembered so fondly. She picked it up with her blue-nailed hand and held it to her chest, playing a quick seven note tune he taught her before she handed it to him.

"Play," she ordered, sitting by him and watching him intently, urging him silently to play.

"It's out of tune," he commented, turning and plucking the strings until the sounded right to his ears as she sat patiently watching him.

"Not anymore, now play," she demanded, crossing her legs as he aligned his fingers with the strings, using his right hand to begin a melody that she knew. He began to mumble the words under his breath as he followed his fingers with his eyes and she joined him in a chorus of melodic vocals merely to hear him as she knew is she joined in he would sing a fraction louder, not to drown her out but to match their voices in sheer perfection which they could do with subliminal ease.

_Dance me to your beauty, with a burning violin,_

_Dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in,  
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove,_

_And dance me, to the end of love..._

* * *

They decided around mid afternoon that they were going to face the outside world as they were in dire need of some sort of food considering Beck didn't really have anything in his kitchen seeing as he hadn't lived in the house for over a year and in the post musical bliss of lying together they decided Jade was going to stay with him-purely platonic of course (just like their relationship was supposed to be)- and they were going to drop by her place to pick up some clothes for her considering she couldn't really go around in his boxers and shirt or her vest, skirt and leggings for the next six days.

So currently she was showering and he was having the hardest time to stop imagining her a hundred percent naked under the hot jets of water, it didn't help either that he'd had the visual before which made it a thousand times easier to remember seeing as it was simply a memory from all the cramped showers they'd had together in his RV before and in his mind he was currently running over all four of her tattoos.

The Nautical Star on her arm which was the only one everyone had seen, it like the other two had special meaning to her. It was about the different paths we could take in life, and about always finding her way home safely. She said to her it was the paths to find a way home, considering she'd never known a home before. She got it on their second anniversary and had whispered that night, that he was her home.

The intricate purple butterfly on her shoulder blade was his favourite, simply because she had it because of him. Ever since they'd met when he was fourteen and she was thirteen he'd called her a butterfly because when she walked through the halls, alone, solemn she was a caterpillar but when she was on stage, or with her friends she was a butterfly, a plethora of beautiful colours and designs emerged from the dark shell she'd been trapped it. And ever since then her bedroom began to grow a collection of dead butterflies and then one night as he stripped her of her clothes he found the butterfly on her shoulder.

The flock of ravens-or rather an unkindness, conspiracy of ravens as she'd corrected him- on her ankle which she got on a whim when she had wanted to run away again. It was about the ravens flying free which she wanted to do.

And the last one which he hoped no-one else would ever see was the tiny pair of scissors in the shape of a heart at the very top of the inside of her thigh, he'd been annoyed that a man had done the tattoo for her and had spent the next few weeks being very, very nice to that spot, constantly branding it as his own with his mouth. It wasn't about her love for scissors despite what anyone may think, it was about her love for him but it was discreet, a hidden message and a way that if they ever broke up she could pretend to any future lovers and herself that it was about her morbid love for scissors. However if one of her lovers had an eagle eye he would notice the tiny, tiny B on cross. The same way that if any of his lovers looked close enough they would find her first name written on the 'B' of his 'Believe' tattoo that covered his back from shoulder blade to shoulder blade.

He felt himself dangerously aroused as he thought of the tattoos that covered his virgin butterfly and as he heard the shower switch off he quickly grabbed a towel himself, held it in front of his pants and waited for the goddess to emerge.

She passed him in the corridor and smiled, wearing his shirt and her leggings with damp hair falling down past her shoulders, he looked somewhat awkward and she knew why, which made her smile as she walked into his bedroom and grabbed the brush from his side table.

Raking it through her wet waves she thought back to while she was in the shower. The entire ten minutes had been spent with her mind completely engrossed with him and the same dirty thoughts she used to entertain as a teenager. She was embarrassed that her mind had even conjured up the filthy images in her mind, considering the fact they were just friends, not lovers nor girlfriend/boyfriend and what sent her usually snowy white complexion into tomato flush was that she'd been tempted to touch herself when the uncomfortable heat began between her legs which was something she had never done to herself without his hands guiding her. Of course now she sounded like a trashy, romance novel with an overuse of the word 'there' but she could admit that she was a prude after all these years of celibacy and despite the fact she never wanted to be a virgin at twenty-two she was very prudish and prissy but she marked that down to the fact that it was supposed to be him who broke her.

Not some random stranger, it had to be him.

She winced at a knot in her hair as the brush broke through the tangle, pulling on her hair like he would do when they kissed and then she shook her head. She had to get out of this train of thought for the only place it was leading was to a very dark and unexplainable path. The kind of dark and unexplainable that even made her scared.

He emerged from the bathroom a little while later, fully clothed with towel dried hair. For being a world-renowned superstar he really didn't care what he looked like most of the time and it was one of the things that had made the thirteen year old her begin to date the egotistical fourteen year old. Although when he wanted to, he took far too long on his hair.

"You ready?" he asked, watching her as she fought with her still dripping hair.

"I don't suppose you have a hat?" she questioned, tired of the rebelling curls and tangles that pulled out half of her hair.

"I do, would you like a fez?" he asked jokingly, standing in front of his open cupboard and looking in.

Her scowl said more than any words could possibly dictate so he quickly threw her a grey fedora which she glared at before slipping onto her head, tucking all of her miles of hair inside.

"You own a fedora?" she questioned ironically.

"No, I own two," he smirked, placing one on his head like a gentlemen from the 19th Century.

"Remind me why I went out with you?" she asked with her eyebrows raised.

"You love me," he smiled, the cheeky, ignorant smile that made her smile back with that silly, adorable apple cheeked smile.

"I can't for the life of me think why," she muttered jokingly and he laughed.

"Stop being so sour and let's go and pick up some food and clothes for you, it's almost five."

* * *

They picked up a bag for her first after apologizing profusely to Jasper for why she hadn't come home in over 24 hours, it was filled with all the types of clothes she used to wear, the same as she wore now but the ones that she only wore when she had the confidence, which meant the ones that she used to wear when she was the mean girl who was the boss of the school. The ones that as a twenty-two year old in college she hadn't felt the confidence to wear.

It was all low cut dresses and short skirts that weren't slutty but had that dominatrix edge that made her feel powerful and she'd shamefully added in her best underwear. The kind that she wore when she knew that every night someone would be seeing them. She also had her nowadays wardrobe at the bottom, a handful of band t-shirts and jeans that he'd never seen her in.

Jasper had hugged her and wished her all the best with a knowing tone she smiled and she overhead him talk to Beck as she made her way upstairs to pack her bag.

"Look after her," he ordered, not giving the superstar a chance to talk just leaving him with a simple order to take care of his best friend.

She'd come downstairs without a word of the three word conversation she'd overheard. She felt as if having the two of her best friends in the same room was somehow like a loophole. It was two completely different versions of her that belonged to each of them, something that she hadn't noticed before. Her and Beck left quickly after that, giving Jade just enough time to say goodbye to everyone in the house and leave a note for those who weren't. Strangely, it felt as if she was leaving forever.

They drove to a small market that they used to visit whenever the RV needed supplies because despite being a superstar he didn't have much money on him at the present and as a college student she had a handful of change.

They wandered around the shop at their own pace, occasionally pointing out strange things or adding things to the metal basket. She chastised her appearance on every fridge as she continuously say the stupid fedora on her head and if her hair wasn't still wet and probably as frizzy and curly as a certain dog she would have take it off a long time ago.

So far in their basket was nothing nutritious, healthy or balanced aside from a packet of red grapes which she loved. There was coffee and various sugary sweets along with chocolate and sugar. They were responsible adults but they choose to make this next week a week of no regulations, rules or otherwise. To them the outside world didn't exist.

As they wandered down the aisle with newspapers and glossy magazines lining the shelves they scanned the bold print, looking for anything containing their friends. It was something both of them did without even knowing but what they didn't expect was Beck's name to be printed on the front page of 'Oh Wow' and taking a closer look they realized that there was going to be more than just a week out of the bounds of reality. Beneath the print was a photo of them asleep on the beach together yesterday afternoon, luckily it had been before the late evening swim or the half naked night.

"_Beck Oliver found in Hollywood! But who's the MYSTERY GIRL?"_


	4. Chapter 4

**A lot of important notices in this chapter actually which is why I'm going to put them at the end because all these bold notes are not what you are here to read! Shorter chapter but it seemed like a good place to leave it considering I seem to start a new day at the beginning of a chapter! **

"This is going in my box," he chuckled, trying to make light-hearted humour out of the situation.

"I feel so violated, how do you live like this?" Jade asked, looking down at the two page spread lying on her lap. There was seven photos' of them, alongside a clump of text that she didn't feel up to reading yet.

"I got kind of used to it in Canada, I was always careful with everything I did but I completely forgot ever since we met again, I mean when I'm with you I feel like I'm not Beck Oliver, I'm just Beck. I should have been more careful," he sighed, looking down at the glossy pages on her knees. Back when she was sixteen she would have loved to be in a glossy magazine, she would have been complaining about the angle of the camera despite the fact she looked like a goddess or she would have driven straight to the editor and yelled in his face that he'd put the article in the magazine.

But as a young adult, who'd grown up considerably, who'd made her own life without the help of anyone, who'd known the struggles of living without money and resources. She wasn't the type to be knocking on the doors of world renowned editors and barking in their faces, she hadn't gotten more 'wimpy' or 'weak' as sixteen year old would have called her, she'd gotten more grown up, she knew that sometimes being the one person who stood out wasn't the best thing, especially if everyone was looking at her.

"It's not your fault, I just, I've never been in a magazine and to be in a magazine just because I was caught at the beach with you, it's just... I feel dirty, violated; I'm in a mainstream gossip magazine Beck. Sleeping. It's not how I want to be famous; I don't want to be Beck Oliver's girlfriend. I want to make my own name," she stated, fingering one of the photos where she could just make out her and Beck lying together.

"There's not enough of your face in any of the photo's for someone to recognise you," Beck reminded, pulling into his driveway where the Silver Streak once stood.

"I know I'm there, besides what if someone finds out?" Jade asked, panic rising in her voice, "I'm a college student Beck, I make a living doing modelling for one of my friends and helping Jasper run a candy shop, I can't have my name out there, I live simply and I like it that way."

"No-one will find out, but let's just lay low for a while, stay inside for a few days before we go out again, okay?" Beck suggested, stopping the truck and placing a hand over hers, "I love you okay, I'm not going to let them cause trouble."

She bit her bottom lip slightly, her white teeth penetrating softly the plump rose as she looked up; melting ice-blue eyes that were open windows to her heart and soul.

"I love you Jade," he repeated, his voice sincere, caring, honest.

Her reply was a muffled whisper, and indistinguishable jumble of syllables and sounds but he wasn't going to ask her to repeat. He was going to give her as much time as she needed, but in the last ten minutes he'd discovered that she was more important to him, he did love her and he did want to her to be his girlfriend again. Not his hypothetical, 'well on this technicality' girlfriend. He wanted to say out loud that she was his girl, not mentally pretend that she still was.

"So we're laying low?" she asked, putting on a brave smile.

"Laying low," he nodded, opening his car door and grabbing the bag from the back.

* * *

They lay together on the sofa, every curtain and blind closed despite it only being four in the afternoon. The TV droned on, bright colours twisting together on the screen so their un-focused minds couldn't see a thing. They knew the story regardless, it was Tori Vega's own TV programme, based on her book about her time at Hollywood Arts. It was nauseating, embarrassing and unnerving to watch your childhood over again, revisiting your teenage years through a child's Television show was a gaudy and garish experience as it would be for anyone.

And of course there was seeing their relationship and how at times it had been somewhat immature, somewhat silly, very unconventional and they didn't know if it was because it was told through the eyes of Tori, which could have been a reason as to why to Beck Jade seemed meaner and more jealous in the show and why to Jade Beck seemed more glorified, more emotionless than what he really was in real life.

Yet the neon lights and watching the Hollywood actors portray themselves was better than watching more the real life TV programmes, or sitting in the surreal silence that without the white noise of the TV would leave them in.

He was stroking her hair as she rested her head on his shoulder, they were in one of their signature positions; a mess of limbs that look uncomfortable to anyone looking in yet to them was perfectly comfortable.

"You've still got sand in your hair," he stated, pulling at a strand of her raven hair piecing a grain of sand between his fingers.

"I have sand everywhere," she complained, "I thought showers were meant to get rid of all of it."

"Do you want to take another shower?" he asked, "I'll show you how to put the multi-spray thing on; it might help with the sand."

"Is that what all those buttons were for?" she asked, remembering the countless buttons she'd been tempted to touch.

"Yeah, now c'mon sandman let's go and get you showered," he chuckled, taking her hands and standing up, pulling her with him.

"As long as I don't end up naked on the front cover of "Oh Wow" then fine," she muttered darkly.

"Now that would definitely go in my collection," he chuckled, leading her through to the downstairs bathroom.

"See these buttons here, if you just fiddle for a while then water starts coming from here, here and here," Beck demonstrated, pointing at three different parts on the wall where water would be soon attacking her from.

"Fiddle, seriously? You don't even know how to work your own shower?" she scoffed, unbuttoning the stolen flannel shirt.

"Not exactly, I don't know what I do to get it work it just eventually does," he shrugged, pressing one last button before ducking out of the way of the spurts of water.

"Scientific," she smirked, rolling her eyes.

"I'm an actor, not a scientist, Miss College-Girl," he countered, "I know basic biology and believe me, that's all I need to know."

"Where's your diaphragm?" she teased, rolling the shirt off her arms.

"Not a singer either, songbird," he retorted.

"Surely your diaphragm is basic biology," she concluded.

"I know the important stuff," he explained.

"What side's your heart on?" she questioned with a soft smile on her lips.

"That's not the important stuff to me," he winked, standing at the doorway trying not to look as she wiggled out of her vest top.

"It's what keeps you alive despite what all the rest of your breed might think," she declared, watching him break out into a smile before disappearing behind the door he brought closed with him.

He went back to the couch and threw himself down, turning his head to focus on the still running 'tween' programme just in time to catch one of their most famous quotes played out by their doppelgangers as Tori's cousin watched them on the screen.

"That maybe, you'd love me again."

"Who said I stopped?"

He hid a smile from the empty room as the teenagers kissed on screen, the silence of the chemistry allowing him to hear Jade's shouts from the bathroom.

He ran to the door and questioned for a second whether to burst right in or knock but hearing her shout for a second time he decided on the former.

"Jade," he yelled, "what is it, what happened?"

"How the hell do you turn this down, I'm melting here," she shouted, standing soggy just outside the glass container as the curtain flew violently with the pressure of the steam with only a small towel wrapped around her frame.

"God Jade, I thought you'd fallen or something," he exclaimed, letting out a sigh of relief, reaching into the cubicle of steam and turning it down to the heat would be less overwhelming.

"It burnt me," she said like a child.

"You'll be fine, it's colder now," he smiled, kissing her on the cheek before returning to the door.

As he opened it he saw from the corner of his eye that her naked body stepped into the shower, quickly closing the curtain before the glass door shut with a soft bang. He could see a blur of her shape through the curtain, her skin pink from the heat and her long wet hair sticking to her back, he watched her for longer than he should have before hauling his shirt over his head, stepping out of his jeans and giving it a one second thought before adding his boxers to the pile on the floor.

His bare feet walked over the white tile till he reached the shower curtain, he slipped around it and slowly prised the glass door open, thankful that the water was loud enough to mask the sound. He stepped inside and closed it quickly, wrapping his arms around her waist making her jump and turn around inside his grasp.

"Beck!" she exclaimed, her heart beating from the fright and her stomach fluttering at the closeness of their naked bodies, her fists were clenched at her face like she was hiding and she was quick to use them to punch him lightly, resting them on his water sprayed, tanned chest.

"I'm sandy too," he smiled, "I'm saving water."

"How eco friendly," she chuckled, trying to mask the butterflies swimming in her stomach, making her quiver in his arms.

His mind was confused by his tongues confidence and his body's forwardness, his brain knew that they had boundaries, which meant everything was to remain platonic and getting in the shower with her was not, ever in the history of the universe a platonic thing to do, especially with her and her-for lack of a better word- nakedness.

He lent over her to pick up a washcloth from the shower hanger and the bar of soap, he coated the chocolate-coloured washcloth with the white soap until it frothed and foamed and twirled her around so she had her back to him. He immediately began to rub the washcloth over her back, deciding it was possibly the only part of her body without getting into some sort of trouble.

She lifted her hair up to give him better access to her shoulders as he massaged the soap into her skin, he followed a trail up her back and across both shoulders before running it around her neck, as he neared the front of her neck he felt her swallow and he did the same before retreating back down the path he'd arrived on. He briefly dipped over her buttocks before spinning her around again, moving on quickly before the awkwardness of it and his nervousness and everything just made them stop.

They'd done this before countless times but as the most-famous-hottest-obviously-sexually-active-despite-not-really-being-that-couple of Hollywood Arts and now as the adult-kind-of-and-not-being-sure-at-all-what-they-are-or-what-they're-doing couple it was a rush of messy feelings and emotions returning to them but with added disadvantages of not being teenagers any more.

He ran the cloth of her arms before beginning his way over her breasts, massaging them with the cloth, covering them in a thick coat of bubbles as he tried to keep his body at bay and she tried to repress the deep, throaty moans threatening to escape and tried desperately to rid herself of the dirty thoughts which was making the crevice between her legs throb desperately.

He took the washcloth down her stomach, circling her belly button as she felt all the butterflies inside her begin to gather in that one place like they were drawn to the foreign feeling. She knew for a fact and from times of experience that if he was to touch her just a little further south then she wouldn't be able to stop what would undoubtedly happen so she took things into her own hands, placing her hand over his and slipping the washcloth through his fingers she soaped it up again, confirming that it had been her best choice as she felt a searing hot fluid which definitely wasn't water begin to seep onto the highest point of her thighs.

She pushed him back with such strength that pushed him against the glass of the box they were in, she took the facecloth and ran it over his muscled arms and down his toned chest, rough enough that she began to hear him pant despite the innocent ministrations. She began to go lower, continuously looking him straight in his black-coffee eyes with a small smile on her face but he stopped her, knowing his own self control was no way near ready for it.

"I think you should wash your hair," he said breathlessly, grabbing the bottle from the shelf.

"I think so too," she nodded, letting him walk around her so she had her back to him as he began to lather the sweet smelling shampoo into her hair, working through every tiny little wet strand, piling it on her head as he massaged her scalp. He was happy to stand under the cooling water as he washed her hair, willing away his body's enthusiasm for their earlier moves was going to take a lot more than simple will power.

* * *

"Are you asleep?" Jade questioned softly into the dark room, propping herself up on her elbow as she turned to look at him.

"No," he replied quietly, sitting up, pulling his pillow and fixing it between his head and the headboard.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked, brushing her damp hair from her face.

It was her most famous question, one she'd ask often when neither of them could sleep. He usually answered with detailed honesty but right now, telling her that he was thinking about pinning her to the mattress and fucking her so hard that she left a dent in his mattress probably wasn't the best way to go.

"You," he replied after a moment of silence.

"No, honestly, what are you thinking about?" she questioned, looking straight into his eyes despite the darkness of the room.

"Honestly Jade, it's you. My mind refuses to stop thinking about you," he answered, "what are you thinking about?"

"What you said in the car," she said, taking a deep breath and preparing the words she was going to say in her head.

"I'm sorry Jade, I didn't mean to do that, or I mean say that, it just slipped out," he replied, trying to cover his declaration of his love for her with the lies that he made that would hopefully put everything back into perspective.

"Oh," she stated, each word planned vanishing into her mind.

So he didn't love her.

"I think we should go to sleep now," he said softly, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her close, surely this was friendly wasn't it?

She moved closer, resting her head between the crook of his body and arm like a cradle as his arm wrapped around her side, his fingers brushing on a piece of soft, cold flesh. Her hair curled beneath her like a personal pillow and her arm followed his down. She felt safe, like that sixteen year old who would want to spend the whole day like this and depending on how nice she was to Tori that week she often got her way and they spent Saturdays and sometimes Sundays snuggled together under the blankets.

She felt his breathing began to steady and she forced her own to match but her mind was running at a million miles an hour, she replayed the car scene where he told her he loved her, then it would progress to the shower only to end with her lying there being told that he didn't love her, that it was all a slip of the tongue even though she had been ready to pour her heart out to him.

She slowly began to drift into a sleep-like state but the day had been such a chaotic twenty-four hours that her mind refused to rest, choosing to run through the events causing her to re-evaluate their relationship, her future, their future but all of those things would take a lot more time than just one sleepless night to solve.

* * *

"_Show me," she whispered, her hair running down his naked chest as she sat on his lap. He smiled and kissed her on the cheek, taking her hand in his own, trailing it down her beautiful body..._

He awoke with wide eyes as he realised where the dream was headed, and when the object of your desire, fascination, dreams and heart is lying there sleeping like an angel beside you, his dream wasn't the most appropriate and the devil on his shoulder was laughing menacingly while the angel was hiding and choosing to have nothing to do with the dark side his brother was pulling him into.

Deciding upon taking a trip to the bathroom now he was awake Beck slid out from underneath Jade, careful not to wake her as he read the neon numbers of 03:24 on his alarm clock, he pattered through to the small bathroom at the end of the hall. The bright lights blinded him as he stood in front of the old mirror on the wall, revealing his dishevelled hair and day old stubble as well as the white wife beater that displayed his toned physique just as well as being shirtless. He ran a hand through his hair and stared at the man looking back at him. He looked like a mess but he chalked it up to it being 3am, he did his business before slowly plodding back to the bedroom, relishing in how warm the covers felt against his cooled skin.

He eased his way back under the sleeping angel and wrapped his arm around her, hoping the cold wouldn't disturb her as he closed his eyes. Easily falling back to sleep and into his own dream-world that he couldn't help but wish was real.

**Time for a little competition for all you arty people, I was wondering if any of you could come up with a story cover for this story? I'm really horrible at computer graphics and I thought it would be a great chance to get my wonderful readers involved a bit more in the story. The design will end up being the Story Cover for this story, your name would be credited in every chapter onwards and your work would be seen to anyone scrolling through Victorious Fanfiction. I'm not demanding you do it all, just if you're bored in the Summer or if you live in Scotland like me and are currently stuck in the house because every day is raining miserably then this might give you something to do? **

**Also this story does get a bit risqué and I assume you've already noticed and I was wondering that when it does go to sex (which will happen much later, this is ****not**** smut, it's a story about the relationship of two people and it's a milestone in a relationship! I'm just really nervous to broach this with you all) if you wanted me to bump up the rating to M, or if you wanted me to keep it T and have one-shots that are M-rated that fit into the story for those who want to read it. I just don't want to lose any of you and sex is such a big problem- especially in these times of Fanfiction and I don't want to lose readers because they don't like to read it or if any of you are too young- which is rather hypocritical of me but anyway- so I'd like it if all of you could drop me a word to push me in the right direction with this? Our little story democracy?**

**Finally, do any of you ever get that really endless feeling of happiness after reviews come in? I mean like the bouncing off walls excitement and the permanent smile on your face because every single one of you my dears manage to do this to me, and every alert I get for this story just makes me so happy and I want to thank each of you for being so utterly brilliant and beautiful for reading, reviewing and alerting! **


End file.
